Ossian Collection > Fingal

190 T E M O R A :
king j go to Mora's dark-brcwn fide. Let thine eyes travel
over the heath, like flames of fire. Obferve the foes of FingaJ,
and the courfe of generous Cathmor. I hear a dillant found,
like the falling of rocks in the defart. But ftrike thou thj
fhield, at times, that they may not come through night, and the
fame of Morven ceafe.- — I begin to be alone, my fon, and I dread,
the fall of my renown.
The voice of the bards arofe. The king leaned on the fliield
of Trenmor. — Sleep defcended on his eyes, and his future battles
rofe in his dreams. The hoft are fleeping around. Dark-haired
Fillan obferved the foe. His iteps are on a diftant hill : we hear,
'at times, his clanging fliield.
One of the Fragments of Ancient Poetry
lately publlflied, gives a different account
of the death of Ofcar^ the fon of Offian.
The tranfiator, though he well knew
the more probable tradition concerning
that hero, was unwilling to rejedt a poem,
which, if not really of Offian's compofition,
has much of his manner, andconcife turn
of exprefiion. A more correft copy of
that fragment, which has fiiice come to the
tranflator's hands, has enabled him to cor-
ie(3 the miftake, into which a fimilarity of
names had led thofe who handed down the
poem by tradition. — The heroes of the
piece are Ofcar the fon of Caruth, and
Dermid the fon of Diaran. Oflian, or
perhaps his imitator, opens the poem with
a lamentation for Ofcar, and afterwards,
by an eafy tranfition, relates the flory of
Ofcar. the fon of Caruth, who feems to
have bore the fame character, as well a$
name, with dear the fon of Oflian.
Though the tranfiator thinks he has good
reafbn to rejedl the fragment as the com-
pofition of OlTian ; yet as it is, after all,
ftill fomewhat doubtful whether it is or
not, he has here fubjoined it.
W/ H Y openeft thou afrefh the fpring of
my grief, O fon of Alpin, inquiring
how Ofcar fell ? My eyes are blind with
tears; but memory beams on my heart. How
can I relate the mournful death of the
head of the people ! Chief of the war-
riors, Ofcar, my fon, fhall I fee thee no
more !
He fell as the moon in a {form ; as the
fun from the midfl of his courfe, when
clouds rife from the wafle of the waves,
when the blacknefs of the ftorm inwraps
the rocks of Ardannider. I, like an an-
cient